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...scale of the military and financial commitment required to stabilize and rebuild Iraq has prompted the realization in Washington that the U.S. needs UN support even more in peacetime than it did in going to war. The ongoing security crisis in Iraq was underscored by a deadly bomb blast during Friday prayers at one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines, the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf. Among the more than 80 people killed was Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq - the most important Shiite group participating in the Iraqi Governing...
...power among the Shiite clerics by pursuing a more hostile line toward the occupying forces. Removing Hakim also strikes a blow at the IGC - the Ayatollah's sanction would have been important in establishing the body's legitimacy. Ironically - and not necessarily coincidentally - last week's bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad killed Sergio Vieira De Mello, the UN special envoy who had persuaded the leaders of SCIRI to join Bremer's Council. Now a second voice supporting participation in the body has been silenced. The Baathists certainly have a vested interest in ensuring the IGC's failure - after...
...India, Pakistan, Turkey, France, Russia and Germany have been rebuffed on the grounds that these countries are unable to contribute troops to what is currently, in legal terms, a U.S.-British occupation of Iraq. That's why the administration is currently seeking a creative formula that would win UN authorization for an international force that would nonetheless remain under U.S. command. But while such an arrangement may accommodate some of the concerns raised by the reluctant nations, the more important challenge the U.S. will face is the demand to begin ceding its political authority in Baghdad. UN member states...
...issue for many UN member states is restoring Iraq's sovereignty by putting Iraqis themselves back in control. That goal is shared by the U.S., although many of its allies - including Britain - have argued that the United Nations has more legitimacy than the occupying powers to oversee such a transition. Legitimacy is a growing concern given the security situation in Iraq, and even the leaders of Bremer's handpicked Council appear to be trying to establish their own legitimacy among ordinary Iraqis by distancing themselves from the occupation...
...could only agree to a presidency rotated on a monthly basis, and has yet to appoint a cabinet six weeks after its inception. Until such time as the IGC or some more directly representative Iraqi body offers a viable option for transferring sovereign authority to Iraqis, the price of UN Security Council endorsement of an international security force is likely to be putting the UN in charge of the political transition process - as is the case in Afghanistan. It may also require setting a timetable for a hand-over to a representative Iraqi authority...